Army Names First Black Female Two Star General

Last Thursday, Marcia Anderson was promoted from brigadier general to major general, becoming the first African-American woman given a second star as a general in the U.S. Army.

Anderson received the promotion after a military career spanning three decades. She left her post as deputy commanding general of the Human Resources Command at Fort Knox on Friday to move to the office of the chief of the U.S. Army Reserve in Washington, D.C.

In an interview after her promotion ceremony, Anderson recalled that her father, Rudy Mahan of Beloit, Wis., served in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II, but never got to fulfill his dream of flying bombers. He drove trucks instead. “There were just limited opportunities,” Anderson said.

Fort Knox Commander, Lt. Gen. Benjamin Freakley, told Anderson she is “a role model, not only to me and those that worked with you, but to countless soldiers.”

Anderson was also thinking of the soldiers who came before her: the black soldiers who fought during the Civil War and the Tuskegee Airmen. She says they never could have imagined her history-making promotion: “But, they still signed up and served,” she said. “This is for people like him who had dreams deferred.”